Method of knitting deep-pile fabrics



July 4, 1967 D FR|$HMAN 3,328,979

METHOD OF KNITTING DEEP-FILE FABRICS Original Filed Feb. 27, 1964 3 Sheets-Sheet l FIG. I

INVENTOR Daniel Fr|shmon ATTORNEYS July 4,' 1967 D FRlSHMAN 3,328,979

METHOD OF KNITTING DEEP-FILE FABRICS Original Filed Feb. 27, 1964 5 Sheets-Sheet 2 39 i I) 0 so I I FIG. 3

INVENTOR Daniel Frishmon ATTORNEYS July 4, 1967 D. FRISHMAN 3,328,979

METHOD OF KNITTING DEEPPILE FABRICS Original Filed'F'eb. 27, 1964 3 Sheets-Sheet 3 INVENTOR Daniel Frlshrnun United States Patent 3,328,979 METHOD OF KNITTING DEEP-PILE FABRICS Daniel Frishman, Andover, Mass., assignor to Reidfielifdifll, Inc., Lawrence, Mass., a corporation of a Original application June 10, 1965, Ser. No. 462,827, now Patent No. 3,280,594, dated Oct. 25, 1966. Divided and this application Mar. 18, 1966, Ser. No. 535,590 1 Claim. (Cl. 66-9) The present invention relates to Dofiing Method for Making Deep-Pile Fabrics and is a divisional of my application Ser. No. 462,827, filed June 10, 1965, now U.S. Letters Patent 3,280,594, which relates to the manufacturing of a knitted pile fabric having filaments over five inches in length looped into the knit structure of the base filaments during the knitting thereof, which fabric may be used as in my basic application for making artificial hairpieces or as shown and described in my divisional application Ser. No. 356,997, filed Feb. 27, 1964, now U.S. Letters 'Patent 3,199,516, in which the fabric may be employed for wearing apparel uses as well as rugs,

or the like, the latter application being a division of application Ser. No. 308,598, filed Sept. 12, 1963, now U.S. Letters Patent 3,139,093.

A further object of the present invention is the provision of a process employing the apparatus of the present invention for use with a pile fabric circular knitting machine or similar type circular knitting machine which employs a single set of needles and which machine knits a plain knit stitch of either one or two ends of yarn. By way of example, a satisfactory wig is made from a fabric which is obtained by first preparing a sliver of nine inch or longer ends of preferably 24-40 denier Dynel monofilaments. The most preferred embodiment uses 40 denier Dynel filaments because wigs made with filaments of this denier retain their set when curled better than those of finer deniers.

The sliver is then fed to the carding mechanism of a pile fabric circular knitting machine or similar type machine, which card mechanism has been modified to accommodate the greater than five inch length Dynel ends of the sliver and to present the Dynel ends to the needles of the knitting machine whereby they are doffed from the card roll onto the needles in advance of the introduction of the base yarn ends to the knitting needles. The filament ends are fed to the needles in such a manner that at the time of knitting they are not wound or twisted with one another. In order to carry out these steps of the method, mechanical modification was required to the construction of the carding mechanism of the pile fabric circular knitting machine.

The thus formed long, hairy faced, knit fabric may also be formed into articles other than wigs or hairpieces, e.g. bearskin rugs, fur coats or any other article that may be constructed from the furry pelt of an animal. The fabric of the present invention may be worked similarly to'the furry pelt or hide of an animal and may be formed by sewing into articles of wearing apparel with the long furry side exposed. The dense interlocking of the nine inch Dynel filaments into the fabric structure to create the furry face gives the thick fiuffy appearance of a natural pelt.

With the foregoing and other objects in view, the invention will be more fully described hereinafter, and will be more particularly pointed out in the claim appended hereto.

In the drawings, wherein like symbols refer to like or corresponding parts throughout the several views:

FIGURE 1 is a perspective view of a pile fabric circular knitting machine modified in accordance with the Patented July 4, 1967 present invention for knitting fabrics for hairpieces and wearing apparel.

FIGURE 2 is a side elevational view with parts broken away and parts shown in section of the carding mechanism of the pile fabric circular knitting machine in accordance with the present invention.

FIGURE 3 is a diagrammatic view of FIGURE 2 showing the path of filament transfer.

FIGURE 4 is a schematic top plan view of a pile fabric circular knitting machine employed in accordance with the present invention having four cards thereon.

Referring more particularly to the drawings and for the moment to FIGURE 1, preparatory to commencing knitting of furry fabric of the type illustrated in the two above mentioned applications, a sliver 30 is prepared by initially taking a tow consisting of 24-40 denier Dynel and dyeing the same to the desired shade of color of the artificial hair fabric to be constructed. The dyed tow is passed for example through a Pacific Converter in which the dyed tow is cut to a length of at least five inches. In the application of this fabric to wigs, shown in U.S. Patent No. 3,139,093, nine inch ends or longer have been employed.

These cut ends are then joined to form the sliver 30, the sliver then being wound around a reel or drum 31 or coiled in a container. The sliver, as best seen in FIG- URE 1, is then introduced to the card mechanism 34 through its feed rolls 32 and 33, best seen in FIGURE 3. The filaments of the sliver 30 are introduced to the card cylinder 36 through a smooth lickerin 35. The filaments traveling on the card cylinder are removed therefrom by a belt doffer 37 having pin-like projections 38 thereon for engaging and removing from the card cylinder 36 the filaments of the sliver for transferring these filaments onto the knitting needles 39, FIGURE 2, of a pile fabric circular knitting machine or similar type circular knitting machine 40.

The machinery modification in order to knit a fabric having the long filaments, that are in excess of five inches in length, entails modifications to the conventional pile fabric circular knitting machine or similar type machine in the following respect.

As best seen in FIGURES 2 and 3, the conventional dotfer cylinder has been replaced by an endless belt threaded over two cylinders, at least one of which is power driven. This elongated doffing member in the form of an endless belt provides a :more efficient dofling means than does a conventional doffer cylinder when working with filaments in excess of five inches in length.

The conventional workers and strippers have been removed from the carding mechanism and a smooth lickerin 35 has been substituted for the conventional rough lickerin. Positive feed rolls have been provided for supplying the sliver to the lickerin, said positive feed rolls, one of which is rubber or rubber like as shown by the crosshatching, also act to hold back the long ends of the sliver, so it will feed evenly and without excess onto the card drum.

In the preferred embodiment utilizing a belt doffer 37, the knitting point on the machine may be and preferably is adjacent the dofier. However, in certain modifications of the machine, the knitting point on the machine may be advanced circumferentially in the direction of rotation of the needle cylinder from the doifer.

In the preferred embodiment and in these various modifications, it is essential that means be provided for laying the filaments out so that their ends will run straight away and not lock on the dofiing element by interengagement with other filaments on the dofiing element at the moment the filaments are knit into the fabric. In the present embodiment this is attained by providing an endless belt having at least one elongated doffing surface capable of receiving and laying out the filaments so that they may be readily pulled free from one another from the dofiing surface.

Suction ducts to remove filaments not well caught into the fabric are shown at 40a. These ducts lie planar-wise at right angles to the cylinder axis and are located from opposite the dofiing zone ahead of the knitting point to a position following the knitting point in the direction of needle travel.

For certain types of fabric, such as wigs and certain long hairy faced fabrics, it becomes desirable to further modify the pile fabric circular knitting machine by removing alternate needles, particularly if the machine contained ten needles per circumferential inch. This reduction in number of needles results in a much less dense, more porous fabric.

The linear speed of the doffer belt 37 has been increased over the conventional doffer cylinder so that the additional lengths of the filaments being doffed will be laid out in a straight away manner for greater ease of withdrawal. The doifing means of this invention follows an arcuate path where it takes the filaments from the card and a straight line path where it carries the filaments beyond the needle circle, during the period when said filaments are being incorporated into the knit web. After the filaments have been caught by the needles and knit into the fabric, the ends of said filaments are carried in a straight away path from the needle circle where they are caught. The needle circle is moving in a direction substantially at right angles to the doffing means, hence the filaments have portions remaining on the doffing means, while other portions are connected to the needles or fabric.

Although I have disclosed herein the best form of the invention known to me at this time, I reserve the right to all such modifications and changes as may come within the scope of the following claim.

What is claimed is:

The method of continuously interknitting long staple fibers in excess of five inches in length into a tubular fabric on a circular knitting machine while the fabric is being knit comprising:

(a) feeding a base yarn to needles of the knitting machine and forming the tubular fabric therefrom,

(b) feeding a web of long stable fibers in excess of five inches in length in an uninterrupted uniform arcuate path directly from a source of supply to the needles and transferring the leading ends of said fibers thereto whereby a portion of said fibers are incorporated into the bights of the loops of the knit structure of said fabric during formation thereof by said needles, and

(c) continuing to feed the trailing ends of said long staple fibers beyond said needles while maintaining same in straight-away non-tangled relationship during knittting of the leading ends thereof into the tubular fabric.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 3,066,358 12/1962 Schiess 19-106 X 3,188,834 6/1965 Radtke 66-9 FOREIGN PATENTS 74,214 4/ 1894 Germany. 240,280 10/ 1925 Great Britain.

ROBERT R. MACKEY, Primary Examiner. 

